Projekt BVFF - publicerade   BVFF nummer:  2012-077 Projekttitel  Evaluation of long-term behavior of newly developed asphalt concrete adhesion promoting polymers Projektledare/Kontaktperson  Niki Kringos Telefon  08-790 60 00 Utförarorganisation  KTH Medutförare  - Bakgrund  The quality of the aggregate-mastic bond under continuous mechanical and environmental loading is one the crucial components for long lasting asphalt concrete. Optimizing the selection procedure to ensure the best possible material combinations can contribute largely to improved long-term performance of asphalt (see other proposal). Sometimes, however, one is bound to certain aggregates or bitumen suppliers for various reasons, which may not lead to the most optimal combination. In this case, having a possibility for enhancing the quality of the bond properties for a given aggregate-mastic combination could lead to a significant enhancement of the long-term performance. For this reason, the Highway and Railway Engineering group is currently working in close cooperation with the A.V.Topchiev Institute of Petrochemical Synthesis of the Russian Academy of Sciences, to develop a suit of polymers that are tailored towards optimizing the aggregate-mastic bond. The polymers are designed in such a way that on the aggregate side the polymer is small enough to be able to penetrate in the stone, and on the mastic side, long enough to cause the reptation effect that makes polymers work well in asphaltic materials. An important feature of the polymers will be their long term stability under environmental and mechanical loading as well as their inherent in-time chemo-mechanical stability to ensure their visco-elastic behavior. I addition to this, the practical application of the polymer into the asphalt mixtures must be investigated to ensure its feasibility in practice. Sammanfattning  The quality of the aggregate-mastic bond under continuous mechanical and environmental loading is one the crucial components for long lasting asphalt concrete. Having a possibility for enhancing the quality of the bond properties for a given aggregate-mastic combination could lead to a significant enhancement of the long-term performance. The main objective and novelty of this project is to enhance the bonding between aggregates and asphaltic mastics of Swedish origin, by testing a suit of newly developed polymers for their long-term behavior under environmental and mechanical loading, relevant for asphaltic pavements. Several specific results are expected from this project, among which the validation of the effectiveness of a newly developed suit of polymers for enhanced aggregate-mastic bond properties, a new test-methodology for the assessment on long-term aggregate-mastic bond properties under relevant environmental and mechanical loading and guidelines for the applicability of the newly developed polymers in the asphalt mixing process. The potential impact of this project are incredibly widespread, since enhanced performance of asphalt mixtures by ‘upgrading’ locally available aggregates to high-performance aggregates could give an huge impact to the sustainability of the Swedish road-network and enhance the international visibility of the associated Swedish industry with an enhanced-performance export product. Förväntat resultat  The following results can be expected from this project: - Validation of the effectiveness of a newly developed suit of polymers for enhanced aggregate-mastic bond properties; - A new test-methodology for the assessment on long-term aggregate-mastic bond properties under relevant environmental and mechanical loading; - A computational model for prediction of long-term aggregate-mastic bond properties; - Guidelines for the applicability of the newly developed polymers in the asphalt mixing process. Plan för resultatspridning och implementering  To ensure that the results of the project will move towards application in a rather short time-frame, the following steps will be taken: - During the project, it is anticipated that several publications will be submitted on the research to both international and national events, important for the pavement engineering community; - To advertise the results of the project and to demonstrate its application, a workshop will be organized at the end of the project Tidsramar  -